As you probably know by now, former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager (pictured) was the featured speaker for the Children’s Advocacy Center last Friday at Sheraton where Sarah Losinger was awarded the Ruth Altshuler Award. Needless to say, Jenna has become quite articulate and compassionate about the needs of others. Regardless of your political leanings, you might want to check Jenna’s book, Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope about a 17-year old single mother with HIV and her years of abuse and neglect.
However, there is another story of the behind-the-scenes activities leading up to Jenna’s appearance. No, it doesn’t have to do with abuse or Jenna’s pulling a diva daughter act. Quite the opposite — she could not have been more accommodating to one and all at both the luncheon and the private reception the night before at Plains Capital’s excellent headquarters in Victory Plaza.
It was before she even set foot on the plane to Dallas for her talk that “the incident.” According the Plains Capital main man Alan White, organizers realized that arranging a flight for Jenna might be a bit of a challenge with her ever-changing schedule as a correspondent for the Today Show. Since Plains Capital was a major supporter of the event, the company plane was offered to tote Jenna to Dallas. All was going to according to plan. Not even an Icelandic volcano was posing a problem.
Then it happened. Just a couple of days before its Jenna pick up, the jet was preparing for a landing in Lubbock with Alan on board. He was having a vodka cocktail when suddenly the plane collided with something and shuddered. Minutes later the pilot reported to Alan that a goose had crashed into the wing of the aircraft and done some serious damage. Luckily, the plane landed easily, but it was grounded until repairs could be made.
No problem for Jenna. She just hopped a commercial flight and made a quick and uneventful trip to Dallas.
As for Alan, he chuckled finding humor in the fact that he was was drinking Grey Goose at the time of the collision.